Why am I writing this? I don't know, since I dislike this pairing. Maybe it's because I feel sorry for it because it has never been given a chance. After all, when one reads several stories written by immature authors that are completely unrealistic, one begins to hate that pairing.
This story is not meant to support Marufujicest. It is simply a realistic take on the pairing because no one has written a realistic fic on this pairing yet. A majority of them seem to involve rape, male pregnancy, underage sex without any legal consequences, and so much OOCness to the point where they should probably be labeled AUs.
And since no one has written a realistic take on the pairing (with the exception of a few I've seen, but even then they can be unrealistic) I will, with the help of my new beta.
Anyways, this story is somewhat AUish because all the logical and Canon reasons as to why they would love each other in the first place my beta and I came up with conflicted with the anime, so you can expect some OOCness and some alternations to their past. Also, Sho will be eighteen and Ryo shall twenty and a majority of the events that occurred in the anime will have occurred in this story as well.
Disclaimer: I do not and will never own Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Chapter 1-Falling Slowly
My beloved son Shin'ichi, I know you must resent me for hardly talking about your father. A perpetual ache returns whenever you ask about him, and I am never able to give you any answers. It is simply too hard for me to talk about someone so beautiful without remembering his horrifying end. Shin'ichi, this book I have written will tell you everything you will ever need to know about your father and I. How I met him, how I loved him, and, ultimately, how I mourned him.
Ptat-ptat-ptat
Seemingly never-ending rain pounded upon the window.
Ptat-ptat-ptat
Ryo Marufuji let out a sigh of annoyance and turned on the TV in an attempt to drown out the annoying sound.
Ptat-ptat-ptat
With a shiver, he switched on his gas fireplace and slowly sank into a large, red sofa with a contented sigh.
Ptat-ptat-ptat
A cup of tea, soothingly steaming, sat on a small wooden table next to Ryo. With slightly numb fingers, he gripped the warm porcelain handle and brought it to his lips.
The hot, sweet liquid eased down his cold throat, making him even more aware of the biting weather.
Ptat-ptat-ptat
Ryo cringed and sat the cup back down with a clink. He hated the rain. Somehow it always seemed to put him in a bad mood.
Shoving a chapped hand down into the sofa, Ryo felt around loose change and gripped the remote.
Ryo aimed it at the TV and turned up the volume to drown out the patter of rain.
He reached again for his warm mug-
Knock-knock-knock!
Startled, Ryo quickly turned the volume down and focused his attention on the door.
Who would visit at this time of night?
Knock-knock-knock!
He stood up with a tired sigh, feeling as if he should have just gone to bed.
Slowly shuffling towards the door, wondering who in the right mind would visit him during a rainstorm at ten o'clock at night, Ryo peered through the peephole.
He could only vaguely see a dark, short silhouette.
An odd tingling met his fingers as he touched the doorknob, butterflies danced in his stomach and energy coursed through his veins as he unlocked the latch.
Was it a burglar?
A murderer?
Some fan who wanted an autograph?
Even more nervous after these thoughts, he tightened his grip and turned the knob.
His guesses weren't even close.
To his surprise, he found a small, shivering, wet bluenette standing before him with a suitcase clutched tightly in his left hand. His soft, gray eyes were an unusual puffy red and his face was nearly white. Wet clothes clung to his body like wet fur and made him look even smaller than he actually was.
Ryo recognized the ragged mess of a boy to be Sho Kobayashi, a shy one that usually kept to himself. They had met during Ryo's third year at the prestigious Duel Academy.
"Um . . . Marufuji-san?" The small bluenette asked, voice shaking as he shuffled his feet. "I know it must be rude of me to come to you so suddenly, but may I please stay with you for a little while?"
Ryo had to strain his ears to hear the quiet, broken voice over the rain.
Sho's eyes slowly became glassy with tears.
Stunned and made slightly curious by his request, Ryo nodded and opened the door wider. Sho shuffled inside and took off his muddy shoes, placing them beside the door. With a sniffle, he then silently shuffled to the guest bedroom without muttering a single word of gratitude.
Peering after him, Ryo made his way to the kitchen and put on another pot of tea, thankful he had bought a two-bedroom apartment.
The pot whistled soon enough. Ryo had been in a drowsy state, thoughts black, ever since Sho had walked through the door.
Why would he come to stay with Ryo, a boy who he hardly knew?
Pouring the fresh steaming tea into two mugs, Ryo placed them on a tray and walked into the guest bedroom. He found Sho standing over the bed, head drooped, pulling out his belongings from the suitcase.
"I made tea if you want it." Ryo muttered as he placed the tray on top of a dresser next to the door.
"Thanks." The bluenette mumbled as he continued pulling out belongings. Suddenly he stopped and his eyes shifted towards a framed photo of him, Judai, and Ryo on a nightstand beside the bed.
Emotions danced across his expression: recognition, happiness, overwhelming sadness, and blind, white hot rage.
Sho snatched the frame with a death grip, sneered at the photo with absolute malice, and hurled it with a pained cry across the room.
Ryo cringed at the sound of shattered glass.
"Sho?"
"Leave me alone." He replied in a cold, dead voice.
Not knowing what to say for fear of making the situation worse, Ryo quietly left the room and shut the door behind him.
Sho stood alone, fingers twitching, shivers working up his arms and across his chest, teeth grinding and eyes burning with unshed tears.
The dam broke, and Sho collapsed onto the floor, hugging his knees in a death grip as sobs overcame him.
The rain had calmed to a light pitter across the window panes as Ryo sat silently, uncomfortably shifting, in his red sofa.
His mug of tea had gone cold, yet he still clutched it with his now numb fingers.
Why had Sho reacted so violently and broken down?
Something traumatic had to have happened. The boy was usually so reserved.
Ryo slowly looked to the closed door.
Was he still crying?
He couldn't tell. With a sigh, he turned back to the black TV screen, then down to his brown tea. He swirled it with a circular motion.
Why couldn't he stop thinking about Sho?
Ryo sighed again. Maybe because he's stuck in my house and I don't know what to do in this situation.
He looked back to the door, not wanting to bother arguing with himself.
To his surprise, the handle turned.
Ryo quickly looked back down to his tea as the door slowly swung outward.
A light shuffling of feet on carpet met his ears in the fairly still silence, only broken by the light patter of rain.
The sofa sank next to him, and Ryo turned slightly to find a pajama-clad Sho. He still had those dead eyes when he looked straight at Ryo.
"You probably want to know what happened to make me come here." Sho said in his quiet, pained voice.
Ryo didn't respond.
Sho nodded and picked at a loose string on his pajama bottoms. Ryo noticed absentmindedly that they were striped.
"To use the cliche opening, it all started earlier today..."
"Uggghh . . . I'm so tired." Sho moaned as he trudged to the door of the apartment he had been sharing with his boyfriend, Judai Yuki, and friend, Johan Anderson. His sore, slightly numb hands fumbled through his pockets for the seemingly small key.
He emitted an exasperated sigh, then grinned in triumph as his fingers closed over the cold metal.
He held it close to his face to verify the key's identity in the darkness. Assured, he shoved the key into its socket and turned. The mechanical gears cranked and clicked as the door unlocked.
"Aniki! Johan-kun! I'm back!" He yelled as he slipped through the door into the small, dark apartment. He stomped his feet on the wooden entranceway, trying to warm them, and closed the door.
His hand blindly searched the wall beside him and finally found the protruding plastic switch. He flipped it and nearly gasped.
The living room was a war zone: cups were overturned, soup stained the carpet, noodles stuck to the unusually lumpy sofa, and most curious of all was a trail of clothes.
Curious unease crept up Sho's throat and lodged itself.
His nose picked up a peculiar smell in the air. Though the rain was starting to pick up in severity, he could hear faint voices.
Sho slowly followed several articles of clothing that littered the floor, most of them in front of the door to Johan's bedroom.
Cold shivers ran up and down his arms as he approached, cramping his stomach and making breathing difficult with each step.
His fists clinched as he heard a distinguishable moan.
Sho's pulse raced.
Like ripping off a band-aid, he flung to door open so it hit the wall with a resonating smack.
"Aniki? Johan-kun?" His trembling, questioning voice called out. The burn of betrayal stiffened his posture, his fists clenched so hard they drew blood from the crescents in his palms.
The door revealed a horrifying sight. Judai and Johan were on the bed, naked bodies entwined.
They both turned to Sho like deer in headlights.
"Sho, I can- " Judai started to say after clambering to cover himself, but Sho retaliated by the slamming the door. Judai quickly went after him, stumbling into Johan's pants that he grabbed off the floor."Sho, you've gotta understand, I-"
"Shut up!" The bluenettescreamed, his rapidly retreating back towards the object of his mushrooming hatred. Hot tears stung at his eyes and blurred his vision. He stormed into the room he had once shared with Judai and immediately started haphazardly pulling out his belongings and flinging them on the bed.
"Sho, you don't have to-"Judai began again as he shrugged on a shirt.
"You never loved me!"Sho screeched as he turned to face his former boyfriend.
"I did, but Johan's-
"Johan's what! What is Johan that I'm not!" The blunette howled in burning rage and pain as he began throwing his belonging into a suitcase he had pulled out from under the bed.
Judai shifted uneasily from one foot to the other, "We have so much in common and I just couldn't help but . . ."
"So you chose a guy you've only known for a year over me" Sho screeched as thunder boomed across the night sky." I've known you since your first year at Duel Academy. We've been through everything together since! I did everything for you! I loved you! I was even your first boyfriend! And you're throwing that all away for this guy!"
"Sho" Judai pleaded
"Don't talk to me bastard!" The enraged bluenette spit out, noticing a heavy looking vase on the nightstand and hurling it towards Judai's head.
Judai dodged, but the impact of the vase on the wall shattered the porcelain and fragments slashed at his face.
The brunette gasped, staring at his bloody hands from feeling for damage. He looked up at Sho and hoped to see some sign of forgiveness on the boy's face.
He was met with a sneer of pure hatred.
The sound of a closing zipper broke the silence.
Sho slid the suitcase off the bed.
"Sho, please . . ."Judai begged as he watched his now ex-boyfriend stomp past him.
Johan stepped out tentatively from the bedroom and watched in shock as Sho stormed out of the apartment and slammed the door.
Ryo expected Sho to cry again, but he didn't. They sat as the silence stretched out, the sound of a ticking clock tying them back to the present.
"So..." Ryo started quietly, "You didn't explain why you came here."
Sho shrugged, looking to the floor, "I didn't know where else to go. I remember you not requesting a roommate, so I thought you might want some company."
Ryo tilted his head with slight curiosity.
Sho sighed, looking up at him, and whispered, "I couldn't go back to any of my friend's houses." He ducked his head back down and picked at his pants again. Ryo barely heard him mutter, "They'd just pity me."
He sat his cold mug down on the table and got up from the couch, feeling Sho's imploring eyes on his back.
Ryo, not meeting his eyes, muttered, "You can stay, but only for a little while."
He walked to his bedroom, lithe feet not making a sound on the carpet.
Sho sighed, falling back onto the plump sofa.
He vaguely identified a warm scent of peach before drifting into an uneasy sleep.
Well that took a few weeks to write. Literally, it took my beloved beta and I forever to come up with realistic plot. Now I'm sure you have plenty of questions to as such as "Why do they have different last names?" Be patient, everything will be answered in due time. Anyways, reviews are gratefully accepted, especially constructive criticism. Flames shall either be ignored or mocked on one of my other profiles, depends on my mood.
Also, as I'm sure some of you have noticed, there is no title for this story. It's not that my beta and I are lazy, we just can't think of a good title. So we are asking those of you who review this fic to please suggest a title for this fic in your reviews. Thank you and good night!